The invention is generally directed to a Payment Bridge utilized between a medical or dental practice management software system and a credit card payment processor where there is a desire for existing or future bills to be paid by credit card. Historically, healthcare providers were disposed against accepting credit card transactions as terms of payment. Typically, co-payments and other payments were funded via cash or personal checks. However, this related to several problems associated with the use of credit cards for payments in this area. First, there was a transactional cost associated with the use of credit cards not present when either cash or checks were utilized. Second, there was a risk that a user would disavow or cancel the charge, which would create a deficiency in payment and substantially increase the administrative burden on the medical office for and following charge. Of course, there are problems also associated with the use of checks in that they take several days to clear, preventing the medical or dental office from immediately utilizing the payment and the risk of the check being dishonored either because there are insufficient funds or because the check writer has stopped payment on the check prior to its clearance.
As a result of the widespread growth and use of credit and debit cards over the past several decades there has been increased pressure by patients to allow for the payment through credit cards. This pressure has caused medical and dental offices to begin accepting credit cards, but to generally rely on the credit card capabilities of their practice management software vendor, which is generally relatively expensive and suffers from significant disabilities in terms of protecting the professional office from credit card problems.
The number one financial obstacle faced by healthcare providers is that often they do not get paid for services rendered because of the traditional paper billing system employed. Statistically, 30% of revenue comes directly from patients and not from other payers like insurance companies or a patient's employer. Patient balances sit on the healthcare provider's account for an average of 4 months. Traditional paper billing and collection methods result in a recovery rate of only 50%. The cost of billing a patient is between $7.00 and $9.00 per bill in administrative time, postage and supplies. Generally, a doctor's office must send out an average of three statements to get one bill paid. The number one way a doctor loses a patient to another doctor is to allow that patient to owe money because the patient then becomes embarrassed or angry and leaves the practice. It is important to note that studies show the average patient will refer as many as eight other patients to a practice. However, this can only happen if a patient is on good terms with the practice. Generally, consumer surveys show that vacations and charitable contributions take precedence over payments owed to doctors and dentists.
While there are other companies which offer payment services using credit cards to healthcare professional, these other services utilize a one payment processor, which is hard coded into the practice management software. This single payment processor normally has a set price and a “kick-back” to the software distributor for any software sign-ups. These other technologies do not integrate with the practitioner's choice of practice software, forcing them to open a separate program to process payment from another, preferred credit card payment processor.
The healthcare industry is not differentiated from other industries in the eyes of payment processors. All processes have the same cost, but they don't have the same overhead. Processors who service many different industries may have fraud losses associated with the different industry, but charge the healthcare providers the same rates as the other businesses, which have substantial charge-backs and other fraudulent activities. Generally, retail businesses have much higher fraud and return/cancellation issues than do healthcare providers. This becomes a significant problem to healthcare providers as they are forced to pay increased rates to the credit card processors due to the retail market's failure to differentiate between industries.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved payment processing bridge which can be joined to and integrated with a wide variety of practice management systems and to allow payment processing at a reduced cost associated with the specific risks inherent to the healthcare industry, without the need for a user to exit the practice management software, perform additional steps or enter the payment information into multiple systems. Also, there is a desire to be able to optimize a healthcare provider's selection of a payment processor independently of the forced deal imposed by their practice management software vendor. And there is a need for a payment bridge which seamlessly bridges the healthcare professional's practice software and their patients use of credit cards in a way which minimizes the costs, enhances the convenience and provides a robust safe environment for the healthcare professional and their patients.